Do reindeer have Front-Limb Biases?

Laterality refers to the dominance of the brain’s left or right hemisphere over particular functions, such as certain behaviours. One common example is handedness in humans, where right- or left hand preference tends to be regulated by the dominance of on side of the brain. The purpose of this study is to examine if reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) have front-limb preferences and evaluate if a correlation between lateralization and agonistic behaviour can be found. To do so, twenty reindeer were observed through video analysis when interacting and digging in the snow to reach food, to determine if the reindeer preferred to use one front leg more than the other. The results from the study suggests that some reindeer do have front-limb preferences, but not in a way that showed statistical significance over the entire population. A positive correlation between stronger laterality and agonistic behaviour was also observed, but further studies are needed to verify these results. Modern handling and transportation of reindeer during migration between pastures is often necessary due to human infrastructure, but can cause stress-related symptoms in the reindeer. Developments in the understanding of lateralization in animals, along with new ways of measuring lateralization, could potentially be used to improve animal handling. For example, by understanding how a certain reindeer is likely to react to sudden changes or which side it prefers in social interactions, we might be able to reduce induced stress and improve animal welfare

Prediction models to evaluate baking quality instruments for commercial wheat flour

Background and ObjectivesLoaf volume is the main indicator of wheat flour quality, but test baking has major limitations. Here, prediction models were used to evaluate which methodology best captured the baking quality in Swedish commercial wheat flour and if the chemical composition of flour increased prediction accuracy.FindingsFlour type (e.g., winter vs. spring wheat) affected prediction model results significantly. Thus, separate prediction models should be developed for each flour type. Combining data from alveograph, farinograph, and glutomatic tests with protein and damaged starch gave the best prediction results. The main loaf volume predictors were dough strength for winter wheat, stability for spring wheat, and extensibility for flour blends. The composition of protein and arabinoxylan influenced several quality parameters but did not improve loaf volume predictions.ConclusionsBest predictions were obtained for winter wheat. Spring wheat and flour blend models contained only one latent variable, indicating that protein content was the main determinant for loaf volume in these samples.Significance and NoveltyThis study is one of few using prediction models to evaluate instrument suitability to determine loaf volume. Instruments suitable for predicting quality were determined for commercial winter wheat flour, which is the main product of Swedish mills

Arsenic Poisoning in Rural Bangladesh-An intersectional analysis of impact in women

Based on a qualitative case study in six arsenic acute villages in southwest Bangladesh, this paper presents the intersectional impact of the arsenic poisoning crisis in rural Bangladesh. Findings indicate that the arsenic poisoning crisis is aggravating existing gender inequalities as well as gender roles and responsibilities. The gender inequalities related to arsenicosis are manifested in the access to health care and in the degree of social stigma: women are the biggest victims, unmarried women in particular. The study shows that multiple axis of oppression as class, disability and age are crucial in determining the magnitude of the arsenic poisoning impacts in rural Bangladesh. Understanding the gendered dynamics in the arsenic poisoning crisis and, in particular its intersectional impact on women informs the debate on disaster management. Consequently, by expanding current knowledge, this case study lays the ground for more comprehensive and gender inclusive policy making in the context of hazardous waterscapes

Determining levels of water-extractable and water-unextractable arabinoxylan in commercial Swedish wheat flours by a high-throughput method

A high-throughput method for quantification of water extractable arabinoxylan (WE-AX) and water unextractable arabinoxylan (WU-AX) was adapted for and evaluated on 197 commercial Swedish wheat flours, collected continuously during harvest years 2018 and 2019. In the method, starch was hydrolysed by alpha-amylase and WE-AX was precipitated with 80% ethanol. AX residues were quantified by gas chromatography after acid hydrolysis. The method had a good repeatability (2.1% RSDr for total AX). Spring wheat flour had a higher WE-AX content (0.68%) and lower WU-AX content (1.19%) than winter wheat flour (0.56% and 1.31%). The variation of total AX content was high for winter wheat flour (1.5-2.2%), with no correlation to ash or protein content. Total AX content differed significantly both between harvest years and locations, indicating an impact from environment on AX composition. Overall, the method enabled high-throughput analysis of wheat flour and can be further used to study how endogenous AX impacts baking quality

En två eller flera vårdnadshavare - en komparation av svensk och engelsk rätt

Traditionally families have been made up of a mother, a father and any number of children. This means that the legislation in this area has been made to fit those circumstances. The legislators have worked under the assumption that the families affected by their policies would be of the traditional kind and therefore their policies would be sufficient. It has been said that the legislation in a country should mirror its population and that it should evolve with the lives of the people. This idea is never more important than when it comes to family law. The law governing what families can and cannot do is naturally an integral part of their lives. If the laws do not follow the way they chose, or are forced, to live their lives it can result in a major disruption to their lives. In Sweden the laws governing who has parental responsibility over a child limits these people to no more than two at one point in time. This means that for anyone other than the birth parents to gain parental responsibility it has to be taken away from one or both of the birth parents. The result of this is that apart from adoption there is no possibility for step parents or social parents in a same-sex relationship to gain parental responsibility over a child in their household. One of the aspects that have to be considered when discussing this area of law is what is in the best interest of the child. One cannot disregard from the benefit the child will experience from either legislation, particularly since both countries are bound by international conventions that mandate them to consider this. One can imagine that there would be times when a child would benefit from being under the parental responsibility of a step parent, but perhaps not at the cost of “losing” one of its natural parents. However this would have to be the case with the current Swedish law. Another aspect that can be of value is to examine whether there are viable options other than adding the possibility of giving more adults parental responsibility. And if so, are those options already in place. This thesis looks into the legislation governing the same area in Sweden and England and goes on to do a comparison between Sweden and England. How different are the respective legislations? Can there be a change in the Swedish law and if so, is that change desirable.En familj har traditionellt sett bestått av en moder, en fader och ett antal barn. Det innebär att lagstiftningen inom familjerätten är utformad för att passa dessa omständigheter. Lagstiftarna har arbetat utifrån antagandet att de familjer som skulle påverkas av deras lagstiftning skulle vara av den traditionella sorten och att deras lagstiftning därför skulle vara fullt tillräcklig. Det har sagts att ett lands lagstiftning bör spegla dess befolkning och att den bör utvecklas i takt med invånarnas liv. Aldrig är den idén mer viktig än när det gäller familjerätt. Lagarna som styr vad familjer kan och inte kan göra har naturligtvis en avgörande roll i deras liv. Om lagarna inte följer hur de väljer, eller tvingas, att leva sina liv kan det få stora konsekvenser. I Sverige begränsar lagarna som styr vem som kan vara vårdnadshavare antalet sådana till max två vid samma tidpunkt. Det innebär att för att det ska vara möjligt för någon annan än de biologiska föräldrarna att vara vårdnadshavare krävs det att en av eller båda de biologiska föräldrarna förlorar sitt legala vårdnadsansvar. Resultatet blir att det för styvföräldrar i en samkönad relation finns det ingen möjlighet förutom adoption att bli vårdnadshavare. Något man måste ta hänsyn till när man diskuterar lagar som rör barn är om de är utformade på ett sätt som sätter barnets bästa i främsta rummet. Man kan inte bortse från de fördelar barn kan åtnjuta av respektive regelsystem. Särskilt inte eftersom båda länderna är bundna av internationella konventioner att ta hänsyn till detta. Man kan tänka sig att det finns tillfällen när det med hänsyn till barnets bästa skulle vara fördelaktigt att en styvförälder hade vårdnaden, men kanske inte på ”bekostnad” av att en biologisk förälder förlorar vårdnaden. Dock är det den enda möjliga utgången med den nuvarande svenska lagstiftningen. Denna uppsats ser dels till hur lagstiftningen ser ut inom samma område i Sverige respektive England. Det följs av en komparation mellan Sverige och England. Hur annorlunda är systemen och kan det komma en förändring i Sverige och är den i så fall önskansvärd

Hur kan Lunds kommun minska sin kemikaliebelastning?

The international increasing consumption implies an increase in the use of chemical products, articles and services. Between the years 2000 -2020 the production of chemicals is expected to rise with 85 percent. Chemicals is not something we can live without, they are all around us for example in food, electronics, clothes and hygienic products. The knowledge about hazardous chemicals and their environmental and health effects is unfortunately lacking and the rate at which new substances is being presented leaves knowledge and legislation far behind. A group that is particularly vulnerable towards chemicals is children and adolescence. The municipality of Lund has a document about ecological sustainable development called LundaEko, which is going to be updated this year and new objectives to be reached until 2020 will be formulated. The aim of this thesis is to provide a basis for the updated LundaEko how Lund municipality may avoid the use of hazardous substances through procurement, optionally be more demanding than what current law requires and prioritize target areas for hazardous chemicals. Green public procurement is one of the most effective management control measurements when it comes to decreasing the use of hazardous chemicals. Since Lund purchase products, articles and services for large amounts of money they can by setting chemical-related demands decrease the use of chemicals. The SIN-list is also a useful instrument when it comes to setting relevant requirements. There are some good examples to be inspired by from other municipals and authorities where they have proceeded ahead of what current legislation demands. For Lund to be able to decrease their use of hazardous chemicals a political decision has to be made. Therefore should a new object as a part of LundaEko contain an extended green public procurement as well as sub-target to use and set requirements from the SIN-list in the procurement work. Since it’s not possible to include all the substances from the SIN-list priorities must be made. A relevant area to prioritize is non-toxic pre-schools and schools to secure a more non-toxic future for children and adolescence

mRNA and natural endogenous antisense RNA in Dictyostelium discoideum

The aim of this Master's Thesis was to investigate the presence and regulation of RNAi in the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum. The background for the project is a cDNA library representing 18-25nt RNAs (9000 clones) from Dictyostelium discoideum that recently was constructed. The result revealed a number of small RNAs with antisense complementary to mRNAs and from these we chose three genes for further investigation; hatA, rsmF, and DDB0230011 (kielin). We also studied two "relatives" to hatA, namely hatB and hatC to see if the genes are similar to each other in the setup of both an mRNA and asRNA. The first aim was to find both mRNA and asRNA for the genes which was done with RT-PCR. We found that all genes have both an mRNA and an asRNA, except for hatC which lacks an asRNA. By performing a Northern blot analysis of hatA mRNA and asRNA during development and in some RNAi knockout strains we found that both RNAs are is down regulated during development and also in some of the knockout strains. hatA has previously been reported to have a role in osmotic stress. We decided to investigate this effect in two normal Dictyostelium (Ax4:4 and Ax2) strains and two knockout strains, rrpC- and drnA- (done in Ax4:4 and Ax2 respectively). The results revealed that the asRNA and mRNA is down regulated due to stress and that it also differs in gene expression between untreated cells and cells treated with a starvation buffer. The theory based on our results is that the RNA expression goes down during development which is initiated by the starvation buffer and when the hyper osmotic buffer is added the expression goes down even more. The mRNA predicted to encode a Kielin homolog has previously been proven to be located in the tip of structure that has been allowed to develop for 16 hours and therefore we wanted to study the location of both mRNA and asRNA in this type of structure, also known as a slug. By using Fluorescent In situ hybridization we were able to detect both mRNA and asRNA, where the mRNA seems to be located in the entire structure while the majority of the asRNA can be found in the outer cell layer in one end of the slug.RNA interference (RNAi) är ett ämne som under hösten 2006 kom upp på tapeten tack vare att Nobelpriset i Medicin och fysiologi tillägnades forskarna Craig Mello och Andrew Fire i just detta ämne. Principen innebär att när dubbelsträngat RNA kommer in i en cell känns det igen av ett protein som kallas för Dicer som klipper ner RNAt i mindre bitar varpå en bit fäster till ett protein komplex (RISC). RISC komplexet snurrar upp den dubbelsträngade RNA biten och delar den i två delar och använder därefter den ena delen som en mall för att hitta bitar som matchar. När komplexet hittar matchande sekvenser på andra RNA molekyler klyvs dessa och därigenom tystas den gen som skulle ha bidragit till ett protein, till exempel ett virus protein. I mitt examensarbete har jag studerat RNAi hos modellorganismen Dictyostelium discoideum, en amöba som lever i det översta jordlagret och som har en intressant livscykel. Dictyostelium celler lever som encelliga organismer och äter jästsvampar och bakterier, men när svält inträffar skickas en signal substans ut (cykliskt AMP, cAMP) vilket gör att de encelliga organismerna samlar ihop sig och går ihop till en multicellulär organism. Denna organism genomgår därefter ett flertal olika livsstadier innan den slutligen når en struktur där en sporboll sitter högst upp på en lång stjälk, ett utseende som påminner om blomman och frökapseln hos björnmossa. Bakgrunden till experimenten är ett cDNA bibliotek över små RNA (siRNA) som nyligen konstruerades och där man lyckades hitta några asRNAn (asRNA) som är komplementära till messenger RNA (mRNA). Utifrån dessa valdes tre ut och genom att använda RT-PCR lyckades vi påvisa både asRNA och mRNA från generna. Vi analyserade därefter RNA från celler som utvecklats under olika lång tid för att se om genuttrycket för genen hatA förändras under utvecklingen. Vi studerade även RNA från RNAi knockout stammar för att se om det finns någon skillnad i genuttryck mellan dessa. Genom att använda analysmetoden Northern blot lyckades vi se att genen hatA nedregleras under utvecklingen samt att den är reglerad i vissa av knockout stammarna. hatA kodar för proteinet hisactofilin, ett protein som är viktigt för cellmembranet, och man har i tidigare studier sett att hatA spelar en roll vid hyperosmotisk stress. Celler utsattes först för en svältbuffert och därefter för en buffert innehållandes en hög sockerhalt. När vi sedan analyserade RNA från celler behandlade med enbart svältbuffert och celler behandlade med osmosbufferten och jämförde dessa mot RNA från helt obehandlade celler såg vi att det var skillnad i mRNA och asRNA uttrycket av hatA mellan dels de olika RNA proverna men även mellan de olika cellstammarna som vi använde oss av. Svältbufferten fick cellerna att börja utvecklas och därför gick uttrycket av mRNA och asRNA ner redan där, och när vi därefter tillsatte osmosbufferten gick uttrycket ner ännu mer i vissa av stammarna. Min hypotes som jag grundar på mina resultat är att hatA nedregleras i och med det att cellerna utvecklas på grund av att hisactofilinet helt enkelt inte behövs i den multicellulära organismen. Den encelliga organismen behöver hisactofilin i sitt membran för att kunna skydda sig mot miljön runt om kring sig, men i den multicellulära organismen blir det yttre membranet tillräckligt tjockt att nivån av hisactofilin kan nedregleras eller tas bort helt. Vi studerade även genen kielin och koncentrerade oss här på att hitta var i den multicellulära organismen som genen uttrycks. Detta gjordes med hjälp av fluorescerande in situ hybridisering, en teknik som går ut på att mRNAt och asRNAt detekteras med hjälp av självlysande komplementära bitar som fäster till mRNAt eller asRNAt i organismen. Vi studerade så kallade slugs, en struktur som uppkommer efter 16 timmar av utveckling, och resultatet visade att mRNA finns i hela strukturen medan asRNAt finns i spetsen/framänden på strukturen. RNAi är ett hett område inom den molekylärbiologiska och medicinska forskningen idag där ökad kunskap inom detta område skulle kunna leda till att man lär sig kontrollera exempelvis sjukdomsalstrande gener och gener som orsakar cancer. Man skulle alltså teoretiskt sett kunna stänga av en cancerframkallande gen och därigenom se till att cancer inte bryter ut och att man slipper de långa och påfrestande behandlingar som finns. RNAi används redan inom andra tillämpningsområden inom biologi och molekylärbiologi, och därigenom hjälper oss att lösa en del av livets gåtor

Representera och konsumera landet

This diploma work, with the title Represent and Consume the Land –I drove following the picture of a spruce through Sweden, is presented as a film and an essay and the aim is to explore the perception of an individual with the film as the medium. To reach this, it is necessary to destabilize my own reality, to explore myself at the same time as I study landscapes and representations of landscapes. The diploma work focus on representations of landscapes of Sweden, external pictures and internal images. The picture is a very strong medium that holds and comunicate myths, about the landscape and about the nation. Together these are myths about the land. Close your eyes and think about Sweden... What do you see? The first thing that appeared to me was a spruce, therefore I drove following the picture of a spruce through Sweden. The spruce – one type of picture, the map – another type of picture. One internal and one external representation of the same landscape. The frame of this landscape is the border of the nation. I drove a car in the border between these two representations without any destination except the journey itself. In one way a journey ruled by chance, in another way a journey ruled by me. In the film I use the same fixed camera angle througout all the scenes and I film according to a determined schedule. I film, photograph, collect pictures and record my impressions through the way. This recorded diary constitutes the basis of the essay. This is a part of my recorded diary: Finally it has stopped raining. Have been sitting in a café in Kisa. Very cosy with a low ceiling and Pelargoner in the window. What my film shows... is pictures, that we see but maybe not register. Everyone register pictures in different ways, and I register pictures in my way... which is a way that sometimes could be seen in my photographs. But with the film... it's so exciting to watch the film, because it highlights new parts of the landscape. The film is ruled by me, it's my journey and my stops along the way, but it's not my frame and my selection. By that I catch the backdrop of my journey and, through the representation, I notice it in a different way. The backdrop gets suddenly a higher value. From being a backdrop... the film is moving it to the front... Time to continue driving. Just have to say that I'm lost again... these narrow roads... it's impossible, they can consist of gravel as well as of asphalt, they can be smaller or bigger... you just can't see it on the map. And all the small villages... some are represented on the map and some are not. I can't orientate... ok, now I am on a new way, but where... Just wonder what my spruce will look like when I am finished... The spruce, is it a frozen naturalized icon of Sweden?. An icon among others through which the landscape is valued? An icon that design the image of Sweden, that shapes the identity of the country and that is sold through pictures, within and without the borders of the nation? The result of my diploma work is a form of a poetic study. A study in which I as a subject, constitute both the one who is studying and the one who is studied.Filmmakaren i Wim Wenders film Lisbon Story har tappat tilltron till bilder. Han kan inte längre förmå sig till att ägna sig åt sitt filmskapande på det sätt som han brukar. Han beskriver hur det känns som han riktar en pistol varje gång han riktar kameran. Livet liksom dras ur saker. Det vi idag producerar är skräp, bilder är skräp och det är vi som gjort dem till skräp. Han är uppgiven men tror sig ha kommit på ett sätt på vilket han ska kunna producera bilder som visar hur världen egentligen ser ut. Han menar att en bild som ingen sett inte kan sälja något och att den därför är ren och vacker. Den är i harmoni med världen, och bilden och det den representerar hör därför ihop. Det är först när vi ser på bilden som saker i den dör. Han får för sig att han ska skapa ett bibliotek av osedda bilder och börjar filma med kameran på ryggen. Ljudproducenten lyckas dock slutligen övertyga honom om att denna osedda objektivitet är helt ointressant och att det som är värt något är bilder som kommer från hjärtat. Lita på dina ögon